Ranma 1/2\. Anime Series Discussion.

So, the Sailor Moon anime announcement got me into a retro anime mood and I decided to marathon watch the first set of VIZ Ranma re-release and thought it would be nice to get other's opinions on it. Me I enjoy it for what it is, but at the same time I do have some nitpicks.

I guess I could best explain my views by talking about the characters.

Ranma

I can't help but feel sorry for Ranma he/she is a good person but his luck is horrid. I get that that's part of the series, but still I can't help but think " give the poor guy a break". His fiancé Akane is always so physically violent & abusive to him, I know it's done in the name of comedy but it gets more annoying after awhile. I don't blame Ranma at all for getting verbally abusivr at time in retaliation, of course most of his comebacks are kinda lame, even if they so seem effective.

But back to the positive, I like how Ranma is portrayed as a good martial artist, but not a perfect Deus-ex-machina kind of martial artists in other Shonen,a I like how he & the others feel like organic characters despite not having much depth to him, he's well rounded, smart, if not abit stubborn at times, and just seems to face all the crazy crap that comes his way head on, except cats. He cant stand those things. XD

As for Ranma's female half. I'm sad they don't do more with it, other then a gag/ Deus ex machina to win against opponents. I mean I know it's just a simple action comedy, but not at all going into how being cursed to change genders can psychologically effect someone is a let down. I dunno maybe the female half will have a more important role later on.

But yea Ranma is a simple but well rounded character with horrible luck

Akane
I like Akane in the sense I think she is a strong female character, she doesn't take no shit from nobody, but I hate how abusive she is to Ranma, yes she has a good heart at the end of the day, but showing affection through physical violence is just wrong IMO. Then again arranged marriages suck, so I guess yea gotta blow off some steam, XD. So yeah, she's a decent character, but way to violent!

Ryoga
I like him, he comes off as kinda stupid at first, and abit of a jerk, but overall I like him and his pi-chan pet pig form XD

Certain titles of anime possess a particular charm to them that’s reflective of the era they came out from. Whether they’re definitive Classics, or they hold nostalgic value or they, like many great series, fall into a sort of ambiguity with a cult following, one thing is for sure; no time period of anime is “better” than any other since they all have their own unique properties; I’ll have words with anybody who tries to deny this. There are a wide range of gems to be found in every era and genre.

Ranma ½ is no exception and is what I would call a comfort food anime; it has a warm feeling to it, it’s easy to get into, it does a good job of setting up all the main characters for what is a seven season plus two movies and one OVA series. Yes, it does get repetitious and follows a formula, as a matter of fact, very repetitious, but at the same time, it is definitively a sitcom with some longer story arcs for the most part.

Point is, I can criticise Ranma ½ all I want, but there’s no doubt that the comedy and action of Ranma has had a profound influence on many of anime I enjoy to this day including Ikkitousen and Maken Ki – especially with its outright Ranma references. The bottom line is, I know there series has flaws, I know the jokes get old sometimes, however; that charm never weans by providing good laughs right up until the end.

The villains are as ridiculous as they are hilarious and yet, are a force to be reckoned with that always puts Ranma’s skills to the test. From pickle junkie Prince Kirin, whose choice weapon is a set of chopsticks and always has a bowl of rice while fighting to the mega powerful Pantyhose Taro to legendary pervert Happosai, and let’s not forget the Gambling King who swindles young children; these wacky characters still manage to make great villains.

There are times where some of the supporting characters and villains do get to be “too much” and over the top, however; I always need to come back and remember that this series is an all-out comedy and the characters are supposed to be “too silly.”

The English dub is great as done by Ocean which brings me to how I got into this series in the first place. Ranma ½ is one of the first anime I got into when I got back into anime ten years ago. It was actually through Inuyasha that I was made aware of Ranma ½; this is only natural considering that most of my Inuyasha DVDs have a Ranma trailer on them. When I started watching to realize that it is a lot of the same actors, I got fun out of trying to figure out who was who. The biggest shocker for me was to find that Soun Tendo is voiced by David Kaye, who’s known for voicing Sesshoumaru on Inuyasha.

As for the characters, Ranma, while I find him to be charismatic and energetic, and I do feel bad for him, he’s also pretty narcissistic and overly competitive. This however, is what makes him a fun character since his flaws allow for many of the comedic moments in the series.

Akane is nice, but has too short of a fuse, and while she verbally and physically abuses Ranma, there are many times its funny simply because what she does is cartoonish and silly and let’s face it; he does bring it on himself often.

Ryoga, the eternal lost boy, has always been one of my favorites, Shampu is cute and funny, but does remind me a lot of my last ex-girlfriend, pompous Blue Thunder Tatewaki Kuno and his twisted sister the Black Rose Kodachi and their insane father Principal Kuno are just a few of the characters a part of the circus that makes up the ensemble cast.

Ranma ½ is a series that has fast become a nostalgic piece for me to enjoy a few episodes on days where I can’t decide what I feel like watching.

From the earliest days of my fandom, Ranma 1/2 was one of those shows that I knew of, and yet didn't feel the compulsion to view. It was a cult classic, it was an icon of an era, and it was listed as darned-near required viewing, but I let it slip past me time and time again until a whole decade had gone by.

When I finally decided to get into the show, was about the time I was administrating my own anime forum, and because there were a few members there that were Ranma enthusiasts, I dove in with both feet, and soaked up a huge amount.

My take on Ranma at the time came at an interesting point in the development of my path to otaku. I was affected by the characters much differently than I might have been had I viewed it earlier in my fandom, or had I viewed it later on. As a result, my take on it was clouded by rationalizations and plot logic, and character usages.

Because of these and certain other issues I had with the show, it took me longer and longer to get through it. My motivation for it began to wane, and eventually, I found myself only truly liking a few of the characters. I found myself growing irritable and annoyed by some characters, namely, Happosai, and Ryoga, and rather than see their inclusion in the show as a comedic element, I saw them as a nuisance, and I began to despise the very sight of them to the point that it began to cloud my view of the show more and more.

Eventually, I put the show on hiatus for about a year, and when I picked it back up, I had a new-found appreciation for it, and I could tolerate the characters more for what they were, rather than who they were, or how their personalities were portrayed. It also helped a great deal that I switched from the dub to the sub of the show.

Now, I'm not trying to make an argument for the dub or sub being better, but at a certain point, I switched, and noticed that Akane wasn't just yelling her head off all the time. That there were more subtle nuances to her character that I hadn't noticed before; and for once, the show took on a greater depth than it did because of the dub.

So then, for me, the series is a catch 22. I find it irritating, annoying, and infuriating, and I find it funny, desperate and hopelessly redundant. It's not one of those shows that everyone is going to be able to get through unscathed, and it's got major flaws. But despite all this, it really is iconic in the way that only a show like Ranma can be.

Like with D, Ranma is a title that I've pretty much always been aware of once I started to poke around more in the anime fandom. I did get to read the first so many manga volumes (in flopped format however) a good many years back in high school, and I'd seen a few episodes via some cheap singles that I'd bought over the years, but this first new set from Viz is pretty much my true 'start' with the franchise.

Having finished the first set a while back too, I've definitely found a lot of love for the series so far. Nabiki and Shampoo both steal the show for me with their adorability, but my absolute favorite characters so far have to be Ryoga and Kuno (though his sister terrifies me).

Like with D, Ranma is a title that I've pretty much always been aware of once I started to poke around more in the anime fandom.

That reminded me of the first time I was told about Ranma. I was working as a baker in a certain unnamed mega-conglomerate store, and the grocery stocker was the stereotypical otaku (chubby, stubble, ponytail, acne)… I think he went by the nickname, Zel... anyway, he found out that I watched anime, he soon started in on two shows that I had no clue about, one was this show called "Eva" and how it took him forever to collect all the tapes. And then his golden grail, "Ranma 1/2." To hear him talk about it, was like an acolyte praising the gloriousness of his deity. I think that was somewhere around 2001.

Little show? You call one of the pillars of 90s anime in the US a "little show". When it came out it was the first anime TV series that was a big seller. Which is saying something for an era when most of the focus was on movies, one-shot OVAs or very short OVA series. This "little show" was the very first anime I ever spent money on, and it was well worth the price to me at the time (no way I'd give up 25 to 30 bucks for only 2 episodes of anything now). Ranma ½'s success pretty much opened the doors for other anime TV series to end up on home video in the USA, everything from DBZ to even stuff like High School DxD. So at the least show Ranma ½ the proper respect it deserves. Disgaea is a "little show", Strawberry Marshmallow is a "little show", Kashimashi is a "little show", but Ranma… oh no, Ranma is not a "little show". So get it right next time.

I am personally hoping my local Wal-mart keeps getting the sets, since they did (and still have a copy) carry Set 1. That way I can just pick them up in person instead of making a special order just to get them.

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